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I am looking at sniping on a shirt, the same seller has 5 identical offerings in different auctions ending seconds apart.

As I see it, I will wait to see which shirt is going to have the lower bid price (not the one that is more than I will spend), and then snipe that particular shirt 4/5 minutes before auctions end. If there is another sniper wanting this product, they will probably snipe the same darn shirt. I am sure there will be one of these shirts within my planned budget. I cannot bid on 3 of these shirts, I could win all three and I only want 1.

Not a flaw in the sniper system, just what seems to be a clever seller.

Any tips? Auction ends this early evening (1/25/04)
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Put the auction that ends first, the auction that sells third and the auction that sells last in a bid group. AS needs at least 30 seconds between auctions to determine if you've won. If you don't feel comfortable doing that then just put the first and last in the bid group. Then you have two shots at winning.

I wouldn't try to guess which auction will get the lowest bids because you just never know how high they'll go until the end. Good luck with it!
You're right, I think that's a little to close to use a bid group, but might work for only the first and last. It's been suggested 20 seconds is enough time to verify a loss on the first and bid on the next in a bid group, but I've seen it fail.

Not saying this is the 'right' way to go, but this is what <I> would do.

Look at auction 5-10 min before close, and toss out the highest (someone wants THAT one) and toss out the lowest (other late bidders will choose that one to bid on). Of the remaining, toss out the ones over your max and bid on the first or second to end.

If the seller has 5 for auction, maybe he has more. If you lose, email and ask for a 'second chance offer'. To go this route, you must have at least one valid bid on the auction, but don't need to hold the winning bid.

Let us know what you decide, and how it turns out.

Good Luck !

Last edited {1}
posted June 11, 2002 12:07 AM by SARA
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I talked to the programmer and you should be able to do snipes for bidgroups at: lead time + 1 second. So with only 3 seconds between snipes you can do a 2 or 1 second lead time on the second auction to end.

So as long as you have a very short lead time on the auctions it will work. I guess in this case 1-2 seconds would work.

Really though there isn't a great solution for auctions ending this closely together. The best solution would be for any seller not to list their auctions so closely together. Most dont though.

If you want to try it and see what happens I'll give you a couple free snipes for reporting back with the results...
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Posts: 500 | Registered: May 14, 2003

It's my understanding that AS will NOT place a snipe in a bid group until it has confirmation as to whether the prior snipe was successful (omitting the confirmation on the first snipe). So, the worse that will happen if there isn't enough time will be that you don't get any.
Last edited {1}
quote:
Originally posted by bringthehogs:
I think some sellers are becoming wise to auction sniper

I would suggest that sellers are becoming wise to "manual" snipers. A manual sniper couldn't respond that fast. The only way for sellers to "block" AS would be to have identical closing times.
Last edited {1}

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